The problem was that the HTML-plus-JavaScript paradigm was never meant for building applications. Sure, you don't need a framework if you're just sprucing up some web pages, but if you want to build a desktop-like app in the browser [1], it's nice to get a leg up from something that understands that sometimes we need the humble web page to be something more.
Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of ways for frameworks to get this wrong, but the overall idea is not inherently useless.
[1]: And why would you want to do that? Because desktop apps never evolved some killer features of the web app: lightweight, cross-platform, zero-install, a passable remoting API, and sandboxing.
Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of ways for frameworks to get this wrong, but the overall idea is not inherently useless.
[1]: And why would you want to do that? Because desktop apps never evolved some killer features of the web app: lightweight, cross-platform, zero-install, a passable remoting API, and sandboxing.